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PriscillaH
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Registered: Aug 31, 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 3
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Review Date: Sep 14, 2022
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Creates out this world look for your photos. Hard to explain!
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Cons:
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I had to send it to Canon to clean it and fix electric issues and when sent back the lowest aperture is 4.0 instead of 3.5.
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The only real problem with the lens is that the tilt and shift axes are "fixed" and not easily moved. However, for most landscape photography the range of movements are more than adequate. The lens is also a bit bulky, but that's to be expected given it's combination of capabilities and rock solid build. The first thing to do after buying this lens is to send it back to Canon service so that they will make the tilt and shift movements parallel. I am a wedding photographer and this is the lens I create the most artistic images. You can see some of my wedding photos here: www.haringphotography.com
The problem I had over the years is that I had to send it to Canon to clean it and fix electric issues and when sent back the lowest aperture is 4.0 instead of 3.5.
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 Sep 14, 2022
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Uracas
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Registered: Jan 8, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 72
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Review Date: Oct 7, 2019
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $650.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Cost...Small size...Canon L color & contrast
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Cons:
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I bought this little gem in spite of many reviews here stating it is not sharp. I can say with confidence that my copy is sharp. Not Zeiss 21 Distagon or Hasselblad XCD 21mm sharp, but quite sharp compared to many other wide angle lenses. For background, I have owned almost every Canon EF/EFS/3rd party EF, Fuji GF wide angle lens and Fuji XF lens there is over the past 40 years. Yes my friend, I have a problem... 
I received mine today and ran it through its paces then examined in Lightroom extensively. I found it has nice color, sharpness and overall rendering, just like I would expect a Canon EF L lens to look. I once owned the 24 1.4L, and the Fuji XF 16 1.4 and would say it doesn't look as sharp in the corners as the Fuji, or as magical in dim light as the EFL but it holds its own given it has tilt shift and will cover the image circle of my incoming X1D2. I'll need to update this review once that comes in, I just wanted to come to this little guy's defense as soon as possible. That said I would definitely spring for the mark 2 if I was selling architectural photos on faith that it must be better. I personally would rather have this mark 1 than the Rokinon version though. No offense to Rokinon, they make some great stuff.
In the meantime I would say that it is well worth the $650 I paid for it new in the box. I tested it on a Canon 6D today and forgot that Canon doesnt have focus peaking? Its been awhile since I used the 6D having just sold my GFX 50R. Wow, I cant wait to try on my X1D2 and actually be able to focus accurately. I had to take a lot of DOF shots and use focus confirmation to gauge things. Stay tuned to its performance on medium format...
OK I have to add now after using it on an X1D2...It can be sharpened to look quite nice but the detail isnt really close to native lenses. Also, I'm having challenges with chromatic aberration...Purple fringing can get quite bad... but so far mostly OK in post. Ill probably pick up an XCD 21mm eventually but will keep this for fun.
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Oct 7, 2019
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peterstrong
Offline
[ X ]
Registered: Dec 21, 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Dec 21, 2016
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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I could live with wide open performance being poor but I thought it would improve stopping down and it really doesn't. I have also read many reviews discussing chromatic aberration and although its there it isn't very pronounced.
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Dec 21, 2016
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gene A.
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Registered: Feb 15, 2004
Location: N/A
Posts: 319
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Review Date: Nov 30, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $887.00
| Rating: 6
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Pros:
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Very sharp in the center, beautifully made.
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Cons:
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absolutely atrocious in the corners
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The center sharpness of the lens is very good but at about 2/3's out from the center the image really degrades, and stopping down even to F11 doesn't help. I could live with wide open performance being poor but I thought it would improve stopping down and it really doesn't. I have also read many reviews discussing chromatic aberration and although its there it isn't very pronounced. I am shocked that a fixed lens with a slow maximum apeture and considered an L lens could be this bad, and thats before shifting, when shifted the problem is even worse. I don't think there is anything wrong with the lens because the center is acceptable but this thing is worse than my 24-105L or 24-70L and its not even a zoom.
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Nov 30, 2011
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retrofocus
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Registered: Apr 19, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 10166
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Review Date: Feb 9, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $850.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Very sharp even when fully shifted in each direction, nicely built, up to 90 degree lens rotation to allow shifting horizontally and vertically
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Cons:
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T/S vertically to each other without possibility of simple rotation, some minor vignetting at top or bottom corners if lens is fully shifted
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I bought the Mk I version of this lens used recently including hood and hard case. The date code of my lens states that it was made in 1997.
I read a lot of reviews saying that this lens is not sharp enough especially around the corners/borders of the picture frame. I do not agree with this. Fully shifted at f8 my lens copy is very sharp also in the corners of the shifted frame, much sharper than some of my other ultra-wide angle lenses. There is a slight chromatic aberration visible at the border of the shifted frame but this is easily removed by software if necessary. More visible is some vignetting at the top or bottom corners if the lens is fully shifted. I am not sure yet if this is induced by the attached lens hood. I observed this effect when the hood was attached.
Manual focus is no issue with this lens. I use it on my 5D II camera and either you can adjust the focus with the AF confirmation in the camera or by using LiveView and enlarged rectangular area to focus precisely. This is especially important when some tilt is applied.
I think that the shift function is more applicable for this 24 mm lens than its tilt function. The vertical shift is perfect to avoid distortions when photographing tall buildings or other architecture, while horizontal shift provides you with great scenic shots when 2-3 photos are merged to one panormama photo. The T/S functions can be both rotated together (not against each other, see comment below!) up to 90 degrees in 30 degree steps to allow for horizontal or vertical picture frame shifts and tilts.
Tilt and shift can be combined, but the original lens position only allows a tilt vertically to the shift (90 degrees shifted). This can be changed obviously by removing the tiny screws and rotating the upper lens part 90 degrees to align the tilt and shift function. So far I didn't do it myself yet, but I saw that the former owner of the lens must have done it at least once since the black color on the screwheads was removed by a screwdriver. There are some manuals with pictures online how to do this correctly. The new Mk II version of this lens allows a simple rotation between tilt and shift to avoid this more cumbersome procedue. In my opinion this is the only bigger advantage of the Mk II version since I consider the optical performance of both versions still somehow similar.
Another advantage of this T/S lens is the possible use of a 1.4x or 2x teleconverter making it a 34 mm or 48 mm lens on full frame cameras (with loss of 1 or 2 stops).
Overall this lens was a big enrichment for me and allows me to do some sort of photography I could not do with any of my other regular lenses. It is not a beginner's lens and it is advantageous if users are familiar of using MF instead of relying only on AF. I also recommend reading some literature online or in books about the theory of T/S applications (e.g. Scheimpflug rules).
If you want to spend more than $2K for this lens, you are worried about very minor possible optical flaws, and you want to have the more simplified full alignment or 90 degree angle between tilt and shift, you should look into the newer Mk II version. Otherwise the Mk I version is just perfect!
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Feb 9, 2010
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dimitris77
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Registered: Aug 28, 2005
Location: N/A
Posts: 655
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Review Date: Oct 16, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Sharpness and lots of perspective control. It can be a creative tool in the right hands. Its the cheapest 24mm you can buy for Canon that is worth considering.
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Cons:
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Not much really. Maybe a bit of color aberration in the corners when shifted to the extreme. I would rate it similarly to my 35L in terms of CA.
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If you want a fun 24mm lens this is it. I have sold mine but now I regret any minute of it. The new version better be much better than the old one. The manual focus forces you to slow down and take better photos. Panoramas are easy to do on the fly or with a tripod.
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Oct 16, 2009
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Johannes_W
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Registered: May 6, 2008
Location: Finland
Posts: 9
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Review Date: Aug 7, 2009
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 2
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Pros:
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Quite well made
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Cons:
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It was very soft & unsharp, even at f8-11. So I sold it, lost money and was very dissapointed.
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Aug 7, 2009
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Henning
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Registered: Jun 9, 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 192
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Review Date: Aug 5, 2009
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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Very useful on film; one of the reasons I got into the Canon EOS system. Good distortion correction. Decent flare control. Good construction.
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Cons:
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Soft in the center, and it gets worse into the (extended) corners. Lots of CA. Not a good choice for a digital camera or digital workflow where distortion correction is possible in PP. Somwhat clumsy handling.
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I'm an architect and architectural photographer, and I've used view cameras all my life, and own or owned almost every shift lens made. I still have 5.
The 24TS-E has the poorest IQ of the shift lenses I still have, and only a few other shift lenses I have used in the past were as poor or poorer. The redeeming feature set (24mm, tilt capability) still made the lens indispensable on film, but with digital it has become pointless as a shift lens, my most common use. PP correction of a better lens can almost always provide the required results, and with better IQ in the end.
I had high hopes for this lens, because the old 35TS for the FD mount had the highest IQ of any shift lens I've used for 35mm. I only used it for film, though.
The lens is almost useless at f/3.5, which is fine with me for my purposes, but it isn't good enough at f/11 where it should be excellent.
The unfortunate thing with the Canon system is that there are few decent wideangle options below 35mm. The early 16-35 was very poor, worse than the 24TS-E, and while the 17-40 and new 16-35 are better, they're not really good. I now use a reasonably good copy of the Sigma 12-24 which is only decent at f/11 or so, and a variety of manual focus lenses from other systems, which is a bit of a kludge.
As a shift lens, the handling is rather clumsy compared with Nikon's shift lenses or the Schneider SA. Only part of that can be blamed on the additional tilt mechanism.
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Aug 5, 2009
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hmulders
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Registered: Jan 23, 2009
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 2
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Review Date: Feb 20, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Built like a tank. ofcource tilt/shift capability
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Cons:
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None so far
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I have this lens now for a week and did serval tests with it.
As others say, the bad reputation stopped me for a while to buy it.
I used it from someone else for some time and was very happy wit the results it gave.
The one I have myself gives the same very nice results.
But as mentioned also by others you have to give yourself time to learn how to use this lens.
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Feb 20, 2009
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pixelda
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Registered: Sep 4, 2006
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Feb 9, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Good creative tool. Close focusing, Takes the 1.4x and 2x converters
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Cons:
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Cost, can be soft at f22, not a beginners lens
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For landscapes, shoot at f11 with hyperfocal set at 8 feet, no tilt or shift, and you will get sharp pictures with nice colour.
Expect a learning curve with this lens once you start to tilt and/or shift.
Tilting the lens means that less light falls on one side of the sensor/film, which makes metering difiicult and might require you to use ND grads on the light side to compensate.
Be careful when using shift, in that you don't over-do it and make the buildings lean out at the top (as I did on some film shots!)
f3.5 is fine for landscapes, but might not suit everbody.
Try using the shift mechanism for producing stitched panoramas - using wide angle usually requires more shots covering a small area, but not this lens.
Only minor complaints about this lens. The locking screws could be bigger as they are fiddly in cold weather and don't lock that strongly.
I've not experienced some of the issues that some people seem to have
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Feb 9, 2009
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felipin
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Registered: Dec 1, 2005
Location: Spain
Posts: 84
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Review Date: Jan 27, 2009
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Built like a tank, good image quality and, very specially, a wonderfully creative tool.
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Cons:
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It could be cheaper, couldn't it? :)
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As other posters said, the mixed reviews of this lens had prevented me of getting it before. I was hesitating to invest so much money on a lens which was producing soft images, lots of CA, etc.... But, when finally I decided to bit the bullet, I gladly discovered that the lens is a real gem! My copy is really sharp, clearly sharper than both the 17-40 and the 16-35 (I) lenses I've owned, specially on the corners. And, yes, there is some amount of CA, but most WA lenses have it too and this one is not the worst by any mean, at least in my experience.
But, along with a good or very good IQ, you get an amazing tool for creativeness. I'm starting an architectural project and now I can't understand how I thought I could have accomplished it with the 16-35 lens... I am shooting everything again! And, last but not least, it is the tilt function, which is opening me a whole world of creative opportunities.
All in all, I am so pleased with this lens that I am thinking of getting rid of the 16-35 (totally ignored now!), and I've already bought the 45 TS-E. The 90 will follow as soon as my credit card stops smoking!
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Jan 27, 2009
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Daan B
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Registered: Aug 15, 2007
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 8004
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Review Date: Sep 6, 2008
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
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Pros:
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see below
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Cons:
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see below
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When shooting landscapes or architecture I normally use my 1Ds3 + 24-70L and straighten things out in PP. Recently I got the change to test a TSE 24mm against my 24-70L @ 24mm. Tilting for landscapes/architecture would mean less degradation of IQ in PP. So I was interested in how the TSE 24mm would perform...
In default mode (without tilting or shifting) the TSE 24mm is a tad sharper in the center of the frame than my 24-70L @ 24mm (at all apertures). However, my 24-70L @ 24mm is noticebly sharper in the extreme corners of the frame (at all apertures). The TSE 24mm showed a tad more CA's than the 24-70L @ 24mm (at all apertures). Both lenses showed little distortions, but the 24mm did a tiny bit better than the 24-70L in this regard. IMO the 24-70L @ 24mm had better contrast and saturation than the TSE 24mm. Unfortunately I didn't test for flare.
I found that when tilting or shifting the TSE 24mm, there wasn't a noticeble decrease in sharpness compared to the default mode. Maybe contrast suffered a bit when tilting. I also didn't notice any increase in CA's when tilting or shifting. All in all, IQ remained of excellent quality.
I really love the built quality of the TSE 24mm. Very sturdy and durable. Built to last. It is a manual focus lens. But with LiveView it is very easy to focus. The effects of tilting and shifting are shown live on the LCD when using LiveView. You will have to meter before tilting or shifting. But when you can check the histogram, you can easy correct for any underexposure.
Of course the TSE 24mm coolest features are the tilting and shifting. Opening up a lot of creative possibilities. But after reading mixed comments, I was surprised to see that IQ is excellent in default mode, but more importantly, is more than acceptable when tilting or shifting.
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Sep 6, 2008
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mattrosc
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Registered: Feb 7, 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Feb 7, 2008
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 1
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Pros:
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Good build quality
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Cons:
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As a standard lens quality no better than my 17-40 zoom. When shifted the image quality is poor. You cannot see the effect of tilt in the viewfinder.
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I bought this lens primarily for stitched panoramas and architectural work. When I first trialled it I found that shifted, most of the outer edge of the image was fuzzy, even stopped down. This meant that most of the extra image created by shifting was unusable. I sent it back to Canon, who said that the lens was within their specifications. Tilt is difficult to use with this lens as it is difficult to see the effect in the viewfinder of my 1DsII. I have the 45TSE and 90TSE. They are both terrific lenses. AAt extreme shift, only the upper corners of the 45 are fuzzy. In addition the tilt effect is clearly visible. I bought the Schneider 28mm PC lens with a canon adapter. It does not have tilt, but the images are very sharp right to the edge when shifted. The result is stitched pans equivalent to approx 18mm lens and 30 megapixels.
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Feb 7, 2008
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veroman
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Aug 19, 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4468
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Review Date: Dec 14, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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• Sharpness
• Parallex correction
• Ease of use
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Cons:
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I hope my post can offset some of the more negative reviews of this lens.
For any photographer who earns a living shooting architecture and interiors, this lens is an absolute bare minimum in that photographer's lens inventory. It's simply a lifesaver when it comes to obtaining sharp, contrasty, distortion-free shooting.
The time it saves on location (and in post-processing) in and of itself makes this lens worth its rather high price (for a manual, slower lens).
Prior to owning this lens, I had to fiddle endlessly with my tripod and ball head to get everything to line up perfectly. Most often, I found myself crouching down in the most awkward positions in order to get ceilings, walls, floors and furniture to line up parallel. With the 24mm TS-E, these alignments are obtained in no time at all. The shift capability is also a lifesaver when it comes to avoiding your own reflection or other unwanted reflection in opposite-wall mirrors or other shiny, reflective surfaces. Just a few degrees of shift solves this common problem. I have not used the tilt capability at all.
As far as image quality goes, my copy gives me tack sharp, colorful, realistic images every time ... so much so that I often use this lens hand-held as a straight 24mm prime.
Yes, it will vignette as you approach the extremes of its shift, but hardly at all til that point.
I can't imagine not having this lens. I use it on my 5D for every single interior shoot I go on. My only wish is that there were a wider version.
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Dec 14, 2007
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Marsupilami
Offline
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Registered: Apr 9, 2004
Location: Austria
Posts: 1
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Review Date: Nov 15, 2007
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 3
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Pros:
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Build quality
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Cons:
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Sadly Photoshop is doing a better job, vignetting, chromatic aberrations and soft at all apertures compared to 24-70 L
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This was a fantastic lens in the film age, but on my 5D it is almost useless. I bought it after a Canon show about architecture where this lens was highly praised by the (paid) photographer. But after testing it I sent it back. Sharpness is at all apertures inferior to my 24-70 Zoom even unshifted, shifted it shows heavy vignetting, cromatic aberrations ocurr which are partly not removable. It is not a bad lens, but if I do the corrections (straight lines) in PS the results are simply better which astonished me a lot. Only use would be Tilt which works, but it is hard to see in the viewfinder, so the control is a little bit arbitrary. But even tilt can be made with software (or more depth of field) and the results are more controllable too.
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Nov 15, 2007
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ziskar
Offline
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Registered: Jul 17, 2005
Location: Greece
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Oct 15, 2007
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
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How does this lens compares with the Leica 28mm PC-Super-Angulon-R f/2.8?
Is there any comparison review that you might know of?
What is the difference between the Leica and the Schneider lens of the same type?
I'm sorry if I have posted this to the wrong thread since this is a review section.
Thanks
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Oct 15, 2007
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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41
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120384
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Sep 14, 2022
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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88% of reviewers
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$966.94
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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9.67
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8.11
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8.5
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